Wired: The PS4 may be more powerful, but Xbox One is stronger

Sony's PS4 may be regarded as having more technical power than Xbox One, but it looks like Microsoft's machine wins when it comes to raw strength.

As in, physical strength. Wired's Battle Damage series recently tested both consoles for durability and it was the Xbox One that emerged as the clear winner.

When dropped from 5ft both consoles lost one panel but both powered up successfully. Saying that, PS4 did go into Safe Mode – although that could possibly to do with how it was unplugged prior to testing. The Xbox One booted up with no issues.

More brutal was the 15ft drop. Xbox One lost the same panel as before but remarkably powered up without any issues afterwards. The story was less positive for PS4. Not only did the whole unit seems to break apart a little, but there were no signs of life when the team tried to power it up.

In a recent interview with MCV one of the Xbox One's designers Carl Ledbetter admitted that the size of console was forced upon the team in an effort to increase reliability.

Everybody gets frustrated, because what we want is for everything to be wafer thin, not get hot and just be a snap to put together,” he explained. But the reality is that there are very real issues around cooling when you're pushing some number of watts in the processor, therefore the thing has to have some size to it. There's always an interesting dynamic between engineering and design, and constraints around performance.

It's called designing with constraints, and constraints create very real things for people to go after and solve. Blue sky can get a little tough because it is limitless and it's boundless. The engineering doesn't really become a barrier – engineering is necessary, just like the design and technology. It's a combination of everything that creates the product.”